Cook: Auntie Sue's Chinese Chicken Salad

This salad always makes me think of Christmas. Every single year since I can remember, my Auntie Sue (who’s one of my favorite people in the world) has made her famous Chinese Chicken salad for us to eat. People LOVE this salad. She doesn’t put mandarin oranges in her, but I like to because it’s fun. I recently had some friends over to watch the Niner game, and it was gone faster than everything else. It’s super simple to make and the dressing is really what wins people over. Make it for your next gathering and be sure to tell me how it goes!

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Ingredients:

• 3-4 chicken breasts (boiled and shredded)

• 1 head of lettuce (torn in bite sized pieces, I use Iceberg)

• 2-3 stalks of green onion (thinly sliced)

• 1 small package of sliced almonds (toasted)

• 1/4 cups of sesame seeds (toasted)

• 1 can of mandarin oranges

• 1 package of Maifun rice noodles (the package might say rice sticks)

Dressing Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup or less of granulated sugar

• 2 tsp of Kosher salt

• 1 tbsp MSG (Accent Flavor Enhancer) - read this if you’re hesitant about using MSG in your cooking

• 1/2 tsp ground pepper

• 1/4 cup white vinegar

• 1/2 cup vegetable oil

Directions:

• Boil the chicken. This will typically take around 15-20 minutes depending on how large the chicken breasts are. Most importantly, make sure that there’s no pink inside. Once it’s cooled, pat dry, and shred it with a fork into bite sized pieces.

• Toast your almonds and sesame seeds (separately) put off to the side.

• Prepare your dressing. Mix all the ingredients together in a small jar and shake.

• Put the torn lettuce, green onions, toasted almonds and sesame seeds, and chicken into a large bowl.

• Dress the salad with the dressing you just made and toss so that everything is lightly covered. Reserve some in a jar if people want more.

• Deep fry the Maifun noodles in 1/2 inch of very hot, neutral oil. Fry just a small amount at time using just enough to fit in the pan. The Maifun noodles will fry very quickly and they will instantly expand and become light and airy. They’ll turn white and that’s how you know they’re done. Just remember that they’ll burn quickly so once they’ve expanded take them out and place them on paper towlel.

• Top your salad with Maifun noodles and mandarin oranges. I like to leave the Maifun noodles separately if I’m not going to be serving this right away. That way they stay fresh and crisp when people dig in!

This is what the Maifun noodles look like. See the video below to watch how they are cooked.